


The Summer 48

by Renayumi



Category: Code Lyoko, Code Lyoko Evolution
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-30
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2017-12-16 16:23:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 5,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/864088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renayumi/pseuds/Renayumi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>#13: Coasters - There’s this moment in a fight when the line is finally broken, just this side of a victory, and they go careening into empty space.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. #1 School

**Author's Note:**

> So there's this list Kittyclaw and I have called "48 Things to Write This Summer". We haven't started and it's almost July, so I guess I'm starting. I don't know if I want to make them separate stories or not but I'm for sure getting all 48 written this summer (not in five summers oops) even if I have to let John pin my legs to the couch again with his sleeping body. So here we go! This first one is going to be Odd-centric, and possibly a little bit of a character study.

**#1 School**

Odd never hated school. He disliked homework and pop quizzes just like any other student in the world, but he never hated school. He just hated not fitting in.

And he could fit in, if he really wanted to-but then he would have hated himself, because he hated buzz cuts and white v-neck t-shirts or whatever it was he was supposed to wear. He liked himself, and he liked purple, and he liked velcro shoes, and hair dye, and the way Girls Who Might Matter looked at him a little bit longer than the other guys. But he still wished he fit in. His parents named him Odd, and that's usually how he felt.

Until Kadic.

He started Kadic when he was 11 and his only friend in the world was a puppy named Kiwi that he literally smuggled into the building in his pocket because he was so tiny. But Kadic, that's where he met Ulrich. (And Ulrich's sister Charlie, who was already rocking some unnatural looking highlights. He always like Charlie best.) And Ulrich didn't look at him, really. He didn't stare. He just introduced himself and went back to unpacking and trying to keep Charlie from embarrassing him as much as possible. That was entirely new. And mostly it threw Odd off, but he decided that maybe he could make Ulrich his friend. And that was easy.

And yeah, when Ulrich started hanging out with Yumi, he felt a little protective and selfish of his Only Friend In The World, but Yumi treated him with that same even manner that Ulrich had. And then somehow he had two friends and he never even realized it happened. But just like that it went from Ulrich announcing that he was meeting the girl and Odd meekly suggesting that he'd kind of like to go maybe and hoping Ulrich would let him, to hearing the boy's plans and immediately throwing on his shoes and grabbing Kiwi's leash. Having friends suddenly felt kind of normal.

Jeremie was the only one that looked at him sideways, but it wasn't the genius's fault. Things just needed to make sense in that boy's world and Odd was, well, he was Odd. So they started out rough, Jeremie liked his nerve and was envious of his extrovert personality so suddenly Odd had three friends. (And then four, and Aelita's "oddness" put his to shame, so he wasn't even the strangest one in the group anymore. He had "human" on her.)

But Aelita rounded them out. Even when William came back from Lyoko and made nice and he and Ulrich stopped pummeling each other, it was still Aelita who gave the group that completed feeling. Maybe that's because fighting for her is what made them a family. That could have been it. But these people that he accidentally became friends with and didn't even notice-they gave him something even more important.

He fit in. All by himself, purple hair and velcro shoes. He had people to sit with at lunch, and a partner for group projects. Friends that would invite him out, and watch movies in his dorm and bring his favorite candy because they saw it when they picked up snacks.

So Odd liked school. Liked himself. And he loved his friends.


	2. #2 Things That Are Dumb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Ulrich Stern, you cannot pout because you were devirtualized."

**#2 Things That Are Dumb**

Once devirtualized from Lyoko, there was nothing that a warrior could do in the lab. They couldn’t go back, they couldn’t get a word in edgewise between Jeremie and Laura, or worse, Jeremie, Laura, and Aelita. No kind of processing, or coding that they’d be capable of anyways. 

Ulrich could virtualize everyone in a pinch. If there was a problem with one of the three geniuses getting to the factory or something he could get least get Odd, Yumi and William onto Lyoko. (And Aelita showed him how to set the timer to get himself there, just incase.) But once they were there he was useless. He couldn’t even get the halo-map up.

There was nothing he could do when the immediate threat wasn’t on Earth, and he had been devirtualized from Lyoko.

It was dumb. Like really dumb. And that was the kind of state that usually brought on the brooding in the warrior. And Odd was his best friend but usually even he bailed when Ulrich got all sigh-y, and restless after a particular incident that didn’t go as planned. 

So one day when Yumi was walking into the dorm and Odd was pushing his way out he yelled, “Your boyfriend, your problem!” after her. Yumi traded her backpack onto the other shoulder, leaning against the doorframe to stare after the blonde in confusion before slowly letting herself into the dorm.

“Why is Odd being dramatic?” she asked, but when she turned around and saw Ulrich she realized, “Oh, because you’re being dramatic.” She shut the door behind her. Ulrich was face down on his bed, right hand dangling off the edge. His shoes were where he’d left them, kicked off next to his desk. He didn’t move. “Ulrich, get up.”

“No,” he muttered into the pillow. Yumi nudged his foot, setting her bag down on his desk.

“Yes,” she insisted.

“No.” 

“Let’s go outside.”

“Outside is dumb.” Sighing, Yumi pushed his legs aside far enough to make room for her to sit. 

“Are we really doing this again? Please stop pouting.” She tried a few deep breaths to keep her voice calm. What she really wanted was to stand up and dump the boy onto the floor. (And follow Odd to wherever he was going--Probably to see Jeremie.)

“Pouting is dumb.” 

“Ulrich Stern,” Yumi complained, crawling up the bed, pushing at his shoulder. Ulrich tilted his head towards her. “You cannot pout because you were devirtualized.”

“I’m not,” Ulrich argued, but it came out as a whine. 

“You saved Aelita. That’s the job. She needed to run the new programs at the platform. We couldn’t.” 

Ulrich looked unsure, but rolled onto his shoulder, holding his arms out for the girl. “I’m sorry.” 

Yumi put herself against his chest, kissing his cheek. He looked more content, letting his eyes fall shut. It wasn’t long until Yumi realized he was going to sleep.

“You’re not taking me on a date, are you?”

“Dates are dumb.”


	3. #3 Distractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #3 Distractions: But even Laura wasn’t his biggest distraction.

**#3 Distractions**

So, generally in one night with minimal breaks and just a couple hours of sleep Jeremie could get a lot done. He programed all four nav skids in one night one time after Odd just about dumped the whole program into the digital sea during a test drive. 

He rewired all three scanners in six hours after a spector induced electrical fire. Basically, if he was distraction free he could get a lot done. And it was really easy in the lab during the day, with all of the equipment and the chair, and the headset-- he could finish just about anything he’d laid out to get done.

But when he got back to the dorm it was another story. The scale of things he could get done without the supercomputer was well, limited. And the others would pop in and out all the time to insist on things like eat, and sleep, and sunshine. Odd and Ulrich were the biggest offenders. They’d drag Jeremie down for dinner some nights, or make him bring his laptop outside at least while they played soccer in the courtyard. 

Yumi wasn’t as _much_ of a distraction but she was far from innocent. The girl would come lay on his bed and read sometimes, try to get homework done because his dorm would be quiet. But other times she’d had it up to here with Ulrich, or could no longer stand dragging around William Clone and she’d vent. 

Jeremie didn’t mind, he knew there was just as much pressure on the warriors as there was on him--and it was a much more physical pressure given the nature of their jobs on the team. So he didn’t mind, really. He’d listen and give her the back channeling she needed. And some nights he wouldn’t get a lot of work done. 

Laura became a new distraction when blackmailed her way into the group. Maybe it was her higher intelligence that made her recall what had happened with the returns, or maybe it was just her undying want to, but no one trusted her. And Jeremie, while he appreciated the work that she was doing, was constantly distracted by her. She was always in files she shouldn’t be touching, copying codes that she didn’t need-- she was way too interested. 

All of that led to Jeremie having to backdoor her tablet like, once an hour to make sure she was doing what she said she was doing. 

But even Laura wasn’t his biggest distraction. Aelita won that award. From the moment he’d found her on Lyoko she’d been reason number one he never got any work done. It started innocently enough. She’d ask questions about Earth. About emotions, and sensations, and holidays. Before he knew it he was up all night explaining everything she could think to ask. 

And then when she got to Earth she had even more questions. 

And then when they found out her history she had less questions for him and more questions in general. He listened to her vent readily. It wasn’t just the back channeling that Yumi needed. He sat next to her on the floor or on the bed, and held her hand, or wrap his arm around her shoulder, or simple listened to her try to make sense of it all. 

He was a sucker for her. And he couldn’t even be upset that he needed to listen to all she had to say. He loved to listen to her talk. He loved to listen to her talk codes, or to explain things. So, he was happy to turn his attention away from his work for her. 

She was his favorite distraction.


	4. #4 Not Getting Work Done

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #4 Not Getting Work Done: Well, maybe we could alternate weeks off and someone could stay here.

**#4 Not Getting Work Done**

Summer arrived anti-climatically, and while most people were heading home at least for a visit, Jeremie and Aelita were more concerned about how they’d get any work or monitoring done without direct access to the supercomputer. 

Horrifyingly, Laura found a way to backdoor the majority of the programs remotely. It was information that she kind of nonchalantly shared between bites of salad when Jeremie and Aelita were chattering about _well, maybe we could alternate weeks off and someone could stay here. Some back up is better than no back up._

Aelita looked the most skeptical. The “most” skeptical because everyone else looked varying degrees of relieved. But Jeremie figures, a few weeks later after his parents ask, then beg, then threaten, and finally blackmail him to come home, that as long as he and Aelita can monitor the supercomputer (and Laura) remotely they can spend a week at his parents’ house. 

So they do. And the first couple of days they check diligently at night and first thing in the morning, but then one day Jeremie gets up to find Aelita on the porch drinking lemonade and taking in the view and decides XANA probably will leave them alone for a few hours.

For the rest of the two weeks ( _Oh, we can stay a little longer! Look how happy your mom is to have you home!_ ) Absolutely Nothing gets done. They go swimming and for walks in the park, they eat ice cream at the parlor in town, and go to street fairs, see two different street performances, and drink endless amounts of lemonade. 

But they don’t get any work done. They relax, and have family dinners, and go to block parties and a graduation party for Jeremie’s cousin. They go to an art museum and a computer store and they play chess and cards on a blanket in the yard. It ends up being a perfect vacation--but work never gets done.

(A lot of work gets done when they get back to Kadic and find out Laura was remotely downloading mission logs, though.) 

The rest of the gang seems a bit concerned when their favorite geniuses get home because, hello, bodysnatchers much? Odd almost gets punched because he spends a lot of time poking and prodding at the two of them trying to make sure they’re real. Their Jeremie is just not that calm, he claims. One day he finds both of them sleeping in, until like eleven in the morning and that is just not a thing that happens--it’s almost lunch time. 

But Yumi smiles and tells them that she thinks vacation really suited them and she’s glad they’ve unwound a little bit. She’s sure by the time the semester starts that they’ll be just as stressed out, but at least right now they’re showing up for all of the meals they don’t sleep through. 

Gradually more work gets done from the duo and, begrudgingly, Laura starts to get actual work done too and not just her horrifying hacking that she likes to do between firewall testings.

They decide next summer maybe they’ll spend another week or two not getting any work done, too.


	5. #5 Naps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #5 Naps: They need their rest.

**#5 Naps**

Aelita has a little picture in her scrapbook of Yumi and Ulrich asleep on each other’s shoulders on a night where they’d been trying to finish a firewall. Odd went to Lyoko to watch a tower, and the other two warriors were on standby just in case. The way Yumi had her head on the boy’s shoulder and the way Ulrich’s arm curled around the crook of her elbow protectively was too sweet to not capture.

Odd catches the geniuses sleeping. Often. Sometimes Jeremie’s asleep on his computer desk and Aelita is curled up with her laptop on the end of his bed. Sometimes they’re cuddled up on the beat up old couch on the main level for what was supposed to be a quick power nap that lasted until morning. Sometimes they’ve been working all night and they both actually manage to find a bed. Regardless, Odd is usually the one who finds him, and he’ll close Aelita’s laptop, and ease Jeremie’s glasses off his face and set them on the desk. He’ll hit the save button and turn off the computer, or shut the files and put them in a neat stack. If he’s got one, he’ll throw a blanket over the couple. They need their rest.

When Yumi finally finds the boys during finals week, they’re huddled around a table in the back corner of the library. Odd’s asleep in his textbook, Jeremie doesn’t look far behind. Ulrich’s pouring over his notes for the fiftieth time, but Yumi saw the quadruple stacked cups of coffee behind his laptop. She takes it away from him and shut his laptop.

The first time Aelita passes out she sleeps for just over three hours. When she wakes up she asks about sleep, feeling rested and content. But when she sees the haggard and terrified looks on her friends’ faces she decides naps aren’t fun afterall. The second time she passes out she’s afraid to open up her eyes and see that she’s hurt them again. After they figure out the anti-virus, it takes Jeremie months to convince the girl she can sleep normally. Eventually he does, though.

Odd and Yumi are jet lagged when they get home from visiting family over the summer. For the next three days the gang finds them sleeping in various places. No one wakes them up, but once Ulrich moves Yumi from the floor to his bed and closes the door quietly behind him.

Jeremie remembers the moment clearly. The moment he woke up from a nap, Aelita still asleep on his chest, and he didn’t feel the panic. The constant pressure of trying to find something, solve something, protect something. He just remembers letting his eyes close for another minute before Aelita stirred. “Jer, are you awake? We’re having dinner at Mom’s...”


	6. #6 Presents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ulrich hates presents.

**#6 Presents**

“Is that for me?” Yumi asked, dropping her bag next to the little box on the end of her bed. Ulrich twitched a little from the top of the bed where he was sitting cross-legged. 

“Maybe.”

“It has a bow,” Yumi pointed out, letting herself into the little bathroom in the dorm. She took her clip out in front of the mirror, shaking out her hair.

“It’s from my sister,” Ulrich clarified. 

“Ohhhh kay? Charlie? She got me a present?”

“She got us a present.”

“Collectively? Did you open it yet?” 

Ulrich didn’t answer, poking at the box with his foot. It wasn’t very big, the size of a jewelry box. Maybe a little bigger. But there was a big purple bow on the top. “I’m nervous.” 

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Yumi came back out into the main part of the dorm, scooping the offending item from the bed and climbing up to sit next to her boyfriend. “Want me to open it for you?”

“Do you think that’s safe?” Ulrich asked, pulling at a face. 

Yumi snatched the bow off the top, sticking it to his cheek. “One way to find out.” She carefully pulled the top off the box, laying it in her lap as she shuffled two see-through bags out of the bottom half. 

Each had a tag, one with Yumi’s name and one with Ulrich’s. She dropped Ulrich’s into his hand, pulling the little satin tie on hers to open it. 

“If there’s a box inside, I’m going postal,” Ulrich threatened. Yumi elbowed him in the ribs. 

“One, two, three?” She offered, reaching in to pull out what was inside. Ulrich did the same. 

They were two identical purple cut-out dresses. Each finished with lace around the bottom and a glittery ribbon around the waist.

‘Will you be my bridesmaid?’ Yumi’s asked in neat little letters. She grinned, looking up to Ulrich. 

“What does yours say?” She practically climbed into his lap to read his.

Ulrich sighed, reading it out loud. “Maid of Honor.”


	7. #7 "I could do that."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And generally that said it all.

**#7: “I could do that.”**

There are words that have terrified Yumi and Aelita when spoken by their boys since they met. When Jeremie said “fine” they knew nothing was fine-- actually they were all probably very close to death. Whatever he’d constructed for them would almost definitely explode and/or crash. If they asked how he slept and he said “fine” it had probably been three days since he remembered he was a human being who needed to sleep sometimes. “Fine” was a dangerous word.

“Fine” was a word that concerned the girls, but it was in the same strand as “probably”. Like, this will “probably” work. You will “probably” reach the tower in time. The rescan “probably” won’t hurt. It will “probably” be done tonight. With Jeremie, for all his genius, it was the small words that were the most terrifying.

With Odd it was the almost the opposite. And it wasn’t just Yumi and Aelita who would notice when he said something horrifying-- even the boys found some of his phrasing flinch-inducing. The worst might have been, ironically enough, any variation of “great idea”. Because when he declared it was a “great idea” it was usually a terrible idea.

Turning the main level of the factory into a skate park.

Zombie movie marathons.

April Fool’s pranks.

“Updating” Ulrich’s style.

Poetry.

Anything he decided to do in regards to winning over Sam’s favor.

Similarly, as a mother might worry with regards to the phrase “watch this”, Yumi would cover her face, and Aelita would watch in curious horror as Odd tried something borderline suicidal. Like a handstand on the overboard. Or a skateboard. Or eating three tacos at one time.

It wasn’t so much words that worried the girls about Ulrich. It was usually silence. (Or absence.) And though Ulrich would never call it “sulking” everyone else would. He would be easy to find if he wanted to be found (and coddled, let’s be honest) and usually Yumi would drag him out into the daylight, or if he was actually upset, crawl into bed next to him and listen to him quietly explain what was wrong. Aelita would bring dinner to his room (even though the boys taunted him miserably) or search for him if he was missing for too long and wasn’t in the usual places. (Library, under a tree, in his dorm, hiding in Jim’s office.)

(It was also a sign of impending sulkiness if he started to apologize for everything. Aelita and Yumi would trade looks of dread and secretly discuss which shift they would take trying to find him if he went missing again.)

But the thing that all of the boys said at one time or another that wrought fear into the hearts of the female warriors was “I could do that”. Nothing stopped them in their tracks faster.

Instances that would provoke this phrase included:

Watching action movies. (With guns and building scaling.)

  
Men with power tools.

  
Any TV show with the word “Ultimate” in the title.

  
Anything involving workout equipment.

  
Dangerous missions to Lyoko

  
Shark wrestling (on at least two occasions).

  
The Olympics.

It didn’t matter how they tried to deter this from happening, it was inevitable. And usually the all provoking “no you can’t” only made it worse.

So the girls would ready the first aid kit, and generally that said it all.


	8. #8 Persistence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe this time it will work.

**#8 Persistence**

Yumi calls it persistence. Doing the same thing over and over and praying that maybe this time it will work.

Jeremie points out she's quoting Einstein's definition of insanity almost exactly. Yumi says he would know, and he's not sure how he should take that. The older girl pats his shoulder and pushes the wrapped sandwich she brought him into his hands.

"When was the last time you ate, anyways?" But he doesn't respond because she won't like that answer anyway. She's already figured that out though, hence the sandwich, and plants herself at the top of his bed with a chemistry textbook. Jeremie offers to help her study, but she points at the sandwich and crosses her ankles.

"I don't know how long Aelita can keep up the brave face," he tells her finally after silence has already settled over the room. "It scares me."

Yumi closes her book slowly and looks up at him. "She doesn't have to," she answers. "And you don't either. Jer, this is terrifying stuff. We're still in high school."

"Not for much longer," is his only retort. He gets sighed at.

"If we're persistent-"

"Insane."

"It's all we have at this point, Jer."

"What if it isn't enough?"

"You can't think like that. It has to be."

Jeremie takes another bite of his sandwich. Yumi reopens her textbook. "What if-" Jeremie starts again.

"The good guys always win," Yumi answers without looking up this time.

Jeremie makes a face. "Always?"

"Do you know why?"

"If you say persistence I will end our friendship."

"Finish your sandwich. We've got work to do."


	9. #9 Never Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can we watch another one?

**#9 Never Ending**

Odd’s parents offered to formally adopt Aelita, but until she could find her mom she still held out hope that she’d get some of her blood family back. In the meantime, breaks and holidays were still spent with the Della Robbia clan by majority. She’d spent Christmas with Jeremie, and a few weeks here in there with the others. But when everyone else at Kadic went “home” Aelita went to New Zealand. 

One snowy day when it was too cold to venture outside, and they were still slightly frostbitten from the day before, Odd decides to put on Disney movies. He queues up the whole princess line, and Aelita gets comfortable in an overstuffed chair. 

She watches intently, and after every movie she’s even more starry-eyed and asks, “Can we watch another one?” until it’s almost one in the morning. 

“I guess I don’t have to ask if you liked them,” Odd teased as he took the popcorn bowl from her lap. Aelita smiled a sleepy smile.

“Can we watch the rest of them tomorrow?” she asked. 

“It’s already tomorrow.” Odd threw a heavier blanket over the girl, figuring the long walk up the stairs to his room was out of the question anyways. 

“You know what I mean! I want to see the one with the girl locked in the tower.” 

“That one is like second to last,” he told her. She stretched out in the chair, eyes drooping until they eventually closed. 

“I like them all,” she babbled. “You know there’s going to be a happy ending. No matter what. Even when you think everyone is dead, or alone and abandoned, or everything falls apart. Everyone get’s happily ever after.”

“That’s right,” Odd assured her. He picked up the few things scattered around the coffee table. Empty water bottles and napkins, piling everything up.

“And never ending love,” the girl said around a yawn. Odd grinned at her. 

“You got it princess.” 

“So I want to see someone else locked in a tower get to a happy ending, too. With never ending love.”

The blonde looked back over at the girl. She yawned, burying herself in the blankets. “Princesses always get rescued from the tower,” he promised. And she was asleep.


	10. #10 Turtles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #10 Turtles: It’s the first normal thing she’s ever responsible for.

**#10 Turtles**

It’s the first normal thing she’s ever responsible for and she names him Puck to feel like she was still connected to her childhood. He’s a little snapping turtle with a two-tone green shell and little yellow feet—like he’s wearing a little pair of Odd’s yellow converse.

Jim ignores it—pretends to think the little turtle in its little bowl is fake. He tells Aelita that she should get a goldfish if she’s lonely, plastic turtles aren’t much company. He starts to tell a story about a koi fish he adopted during the war and then wanders out of her open door. (Two weeks later she finds a bottle of fish flakes next to the bowl she doesn’t remember buying.)

Odd drew Puck a little stain glass panel on the outside of the bowl, and Ulrich tells her it makes him look like he’s in a little seaside church. The two start calling him Pastor Puck.

Puck sleeps on his little rock in the sun and always scampers over to the edge of the bowl when Aelita comes through the dorm door. She sneaks him pancakes and tells him all her secrets. Puck listens. He keeps her company and helps fill that empty place in her heart. 


	11. #11 Placeholder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not hers.

**#11 Placeholders**

She’s just that when she stands in for Jeremie, throwing on his headset that sits oddly against her ears. She can’t get both speakers against her head at the same time the mic keeps bouncing off her cheek, creating a lot of feedback on the warriors’ side.

Because it’s not hers.

And neither is the chair that her feet don’t reach the bar in. She feels weird about pulling on the old lever to make it sit up higher, but she pushes that thought away as she pulls up programs awkwardly. She hacks at the keys for an override because she’s not fast enough to learn to program on the spot all the things her a counterpart created himself and would be doing if he could have made it in time.

So clearly she didn’t belong—not in his chair, or his headset, or his codes. And no one let her forget it.

She was a placeholder.

 


	12. #12 Placemats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They match the kitchen!

**#12: Placemats**

Yumi and Ulrich make the decision to stay in France after going back and forth between several different countries (ugh) for months. France is neutral ground and after ten or better years of schooling at Kadic and university they figure, why not, and start looking for houses.

It takes a while, but eventually they scrape together enough money to put the down payment on a house they had their eye on for months. It’s little, three bedrooms, with peeling paint but they call it home. The gang volunteers their time to help lay new floors, and Aelita keeps paint swatches in her purse for weeks while they pick out paint that will help tie together their theme. Their “theme” being hodgepodge, mismatched furniture.

(There’s a time they’re all in a really good mood about it and call everything “heirloom” to make it sound like they don’t mean “garage sale” or “hand-me-downs”. Ulrich bands the word when they run out of beer.)

To signify the official move in, the Sterns plan a dinner. It’s bad taste to pay your friends and they’re pretty broke anyways.

The whole time they cook (well, Ulrich cooks and Yumi chops things) something feels off.

“It just doesn’t feel permanent,” Yumi argues as she whisks egg whites. “It still feels like we’re renting.”

“It’s ours,” Ulrich assures her.

When everyone finally gets there for dinner, William is holding an oddly wrapped package.

“Your first hostess gift,” he tells Yumi when she laughs, hugging it against her chest. But her laugh quickly turns into something else when she opens it.

Their dining room table seats six without the panel or extra chairs. So when she pulls out six green and tan plaid placemats (“They match the kitchen!” –William) it all makes sense.

They’re doing more than living in this house. They’ve marked their spot. Set down roots. They’ve found their place.  

 


	13. #13 Coasters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm relatively sorry.

There’s this moment in a fight when the line is finally broken, just this side of a victory, and they go careening into empty space. Skidding across the ground. Sliding on the ice. All of the pent up momentum of fighting suddenly bursts into forward movement instead of the thud-thud of hitting an enemy. 

It takes a second to catch their breath. It takes a second for the adrenaline to start to settle. There’s a moment of just coasting. Of not-moving but still moving that happens between waves, between objectives and sometimes it’s a rush, but they’re always expecting, waiting on, the next move.

That’s what it’s like after it’s all over, too. When they can finally shut off the scanners and leave for good. When XANA is finally contained and they can move on with their lives. There’s this moment that lasts a few months. Where everyone catches their breath. Where everyone celebrates. Where Ulrich proposes, and Jeremie sleeps, and Odd trades in his Jeep for a car he won’t have to race through the woods, and Aelita basks in warmth of a found-mother’s love--a whole moment where they’re moving without moving. Where the adrenaline is dying down and the thrill of final victory is still fresh, and for one whole moment they feel invincible. They are coasters.

But just like any fight before it starts to seep in again. The next concern. The next objective. Except there isn’t one, but there always feels like there should be. It starts to eat at them.

Yumi jokingly calls it PTSD when she wakes up screaming in the middle of the night six months later. She pretends it’s a fluke. An aftershock, like some earthquake from miles away. But it’s not. Some of them find healthier ways to handle it. Some of them don’t. Aelita plays the piano, and her mother teachers her to bake. Odd drives too fast. Ulrich makes a Northern Premier League team and sets his sights on high clubs. Jeremie doesn’t sleep. Yumi hits a wing chung until her hands bleed through the tape.

One day Ulrich carried his exhausted fianceé to bed and she almost laughed. 

“We were crazy to think this wouldn’t affect us,” she said. “We were so worried about getting to the end that we never considered what would happen when it was over.” Ulrich doesn’t acknowledge it, but it pangs in his chest, and he holds her a little tighter. 

When she’s asleep, he breaks down crying and starts researching PTSD. 

(A month later he finds a therapist for special ops. combat vets. She’s discreet. She doesn’t ask questions about Lyoko. She tells Jeremie the guy sending his buddies into the field always takes it the hardest.)

(Six months later Aelita finds him asleep at a reasonable hour and sends their therapist a bouquet of stargazer lillies.)


End file.
